Transfer of Method Knowledge and Modelling in Distributed Teams – Lessons Learned

One of the traditional application areas for enterprise modelling is the context of improving business practice and management. In improvement situations an important dimension is better information flow in enterprises, i.e. to be able to provide the right information required to complete enterprise tasks. In order to systematically capture and analyse information demand, a method for information demand analysis has been developed. The subject of this paper is the use of this method in distributed teams of modellers, which requires transfer of method knowledge to the modellers, coordination of its application, systematic evaluation of lessons learned, and collection of change proposals for the method. The aim is to report on the process of method knowledge transfer and usage including the lessons learned and implications on the used method. The contributions are (1) lessons learned from the process of transferring method knowledge and performing the actual modelling in distributed teams, (2) implications for the method as such regarding alignment between different models-on-plastic (or paper) and electronic models, and (3) implications for the specific method notation.